Reconciliation (makes
us accepted by canceling the debt)
Justification (just
as if I had never sinned) (Rom. 5:1)
Forgiveness of sins
(Eph. 1:7)
Assurance of heaven
(Heb. 11:1)
Peace with God (Rom.
5:1)
A hope of the glory
of God (Col. 1:27) (glorious bodily resurrection)
Through
the CRUCIFIED BODY of Christ we are:
Delivered from the root of
sin which is Satan/sin nature.
Dead to Sin (Satan the producer) (Rom.
6:2)
Old self is crucified with Christ (Rom.
6:6)
We have put off the body of sins (Rom.
6:6)
Dead to the law, because I am dead to a
self-sufficient self (Rom. 7:4)
We are made righteous, holy, unreproveable
and complete (Col. 1:22)
We are cleansed from a sin consciousness
(given a new mind) (Heb. 9:14)(I Cor. 2:16)
Gives us a new identity, or a new self
(Christ as me) (Gal. 2:20)
The Bible in Colossians 1:20-22 declares
that there are two aspects of the Cross. It says, “Having made peace
through the blood of His Cross, by Him, reconcile all things unto
Himself.” Then in verse 22, “In the body of His flesh through death
to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight.”
Also, the book of Romans unfolds to us its revelation of the blood and the
body. The first 5 chapters presents to us salvation by faith and the
forgiveness of our sins by the blood of Christ (Romans 3:25; 5:9).
While, Romans 6-8 presents the provision of the bodily death and
resurrection (Romans 7:4).
The blood of Christ satisfied God’s
justice, while the body death of Christ satisfies us with the power of His
resurrected life daily saving us from sin’s dominion. “Much more
[certainly], now that we are reconciled, that we shall be saved (daily
delivered from sins’ dominion) through His [resurrection] life” (Romans
5:10-Amp.).
Let us now consider both the blood,
as well as the body of Christ. We will look at the blood side first.
Our God meets us in our fallen and blinded condition and offers us the
provision of His precious blood for the forgiveness of our sins.
Sins in the unbeliever are the action or outer manifestation of a sinful
satanic nature. Yet, we are so blinded and outer minded, at this point,
that all we can recognize is our outer sins, and have no clue to the inner
condition producing these sins. We don’t know and cannot see that it is
really a spirit manifesting itself through us producing the very sins we are
seeing (Eph. 2:2-3). All we know is that, “I have sinned; I
am guilty of sin; I need forgiveness; I need a Savor,” and
rightly so, we are guilty sinners, and we are in need of a Savor. I see the
wisdom of God in not revealing the secrets of sins hidden producer too
soon. If sinners knew that it was Satan producing sin through them, then
they might try to justify themselves and try to sidestep true heart
repentance which would be fatal.
The New Covenant is based on the death of
the “testator;” “For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be
the death of the testator. For a testament is only in effect after men are
dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.”
(Hebrews 9:16-17) Therefore, “without the shedding of the blood” (the
death of Jesus Christ), there is no remission for sins (Hebrews
9:22).
The Bible proclaims that “we have
redemption through his blood, the have the forgiveness of sins” (Eph.
1:7); we have peace with God, “through the blood of his Cross” (Col.
1:20); we are elect through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (I Peter1:2); we are redeemed by
“the precious blood of Christ” (I Peter 1:19); we are cleansed daily by,
“the blood Jesus Christ” (I John 1:7); and we are “washed from our sins in
His own blood” (Rev. 1:5).
Now, we sing a new song unto our God “for
thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our
God, kings and priest; and we shall reign on the earth” (Rev. 9-10).
So, there is saving power and deliverance
in the blood of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. Many
Christian songs are written with the blood of Jesus in mind, one that comes
to my mind, and is one of my personal favorites: “There is Power in the
Blood.” Yet, has there ever been a song written called, “There is Power
in the Body Death?” Or, has much at all been taught on the “Body Death?”
I believe the reason that not much has been written is because the meaning
of the bodily death of Christ is hardly known nor understood by the
Christian world.
Just consider the communion table for a
moment…There is wine representing Christ’s blood, and then there is bread
representing Christ’s body. We are taught truth concerning the blood
(wine), but hardly ever do you hear teaching on the body (bread) of Christ.
The importance of the bodily death of
Christ is that the body death delivers us from the nature and power of sin
that is, Satan, the one producing sins through us. We were all born with a
self-centered satanic nature, Christ’s bodily death delivers us from
indwelling sin which is Satan. The blood of Christ covers the product
of sin, which are sins; while the body death replaces the producer of
sin.
The Bible declares you are “dead to
sin.” Dead to sin? When and how did we die to sin? First of all, we
need to understand what the word, “SIN” means from the Bible’s perspective.
E. W. Bullinger, a Greek scholar and theologian, says that “sin is not
merely however, the quality of an action, but a principle manifesting itself
in the activity of the subject, “The man of sin,” (II Thes. 2:3) being the
personal embodiment of sin.” Sin in Romans 6-8 and II Corinthians 5:21 is
rendered a noun and is therefore a person.
In Genesis 4:6-7, the Lord addresses Cain,
“Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right,
will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is
crouching at the door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”
Here again sin is personified. The NIV study Bible says: “The Hebrew word
for crouching is the same as an ancient Babylonian word referring to an evil
demon crouching at the door of a building to threaten the people inside.
Sin may thus be pictured here as just such a demon, waiting to pounce on
Cain—it desires to have him.” The Geneses 4:7 word “Sin crouching at
the door,” is therefore synonymous with the word “sin” in Romans
6-8—it is a personified noun, and different from the word, “sins” which is
the very action of the person.
Let us address the question, what and how
did we die to sin? We must first understand what it means to be “in
Christ.” Who is “in Christ?” Every born again Christian is officially in
union with Christ and He in union with us (John 14:20).
The
Bible says that all born again people were in union with Christ as God the
Father reconciled the world unto himself (II Corinthians 5:19). All born
again believers were “in Christ” at His crucifixion, we were “in Christ”
when he was buried, we were “in Christ” when He came out of the grave, and
we are “in Christ” as He was enthroned Lord of Heaven; Lord of earth; Lord
of the Cross; Lord of the grave; Lord of Hell; Lord of resurrection, and
Lord over His ascended position far above all principalities and powers, and
finally we are “in Christ” as He is crowned Lord of all. Do we really get
it, how can we grasp such a high and lofty and awesome inheritance? Just
receive it as a little child, don’t try to understand it. Spirit
understanding gradually comes after our obedience of faith, but never before
faith. Simply receive it, and it is yours.
Since we were in Christ at
his crucifixion, then what happened at the Cross? II Corinthians 5:21 says,
“For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him.” God the Father made Christ Jesus,
sin, in our stead, in order that we might be made the righteousness of God.
Christ did the work of the Cross in history, in order that we might simply
receive and appropriate the benefits of that finished work, and by the
miracle of the Holy Spirit, know that we know, that we know.
How could the Son of God be made sin, and
why? And what does it mean, “He was made sin?” The sacrificial Lamb of God
was made what we humans became through Adam’s Fall. We, through the fall,
are all sin-soaked, satanic-indwelt humanity (Eph. 2:2-3). Jesus was made
Satan-indwelt humanity at the Cross, in order that we might be made
Christ-indwelt humanity. It was an exchange of natures.
Think about this: Why the body of Christ?
A body was a vessel, or the dwelling place for a spirit, and a medium by
which the spirit manifests itself. Through the Fall, all of mankind became
saturated with the Satan’s spirit, that is; in our spirit, in our soul and
in our bodies. God poured Satan’s spirit into Jesus’ body, for “He was made
sin, root and fruit.”
Is this offensive to you? We don’t like to
think of Jesus like that. But love deems it necessary, because a deliverer
has to be like the ones he is to deliver. Animal sacrifices couldn’t take
away sin, nor deliver the person in bondage. It took a sinless human to
deliver the human race, and only the perfect man, Jesus, the son of God, who
is God Himself, be the one.
We need to understand what death means from
the biblical standpoint. Death does not mean annihilate, it means
separation. When your spirit separates from your body, you are dead. Your
spirit goes one place and your body another. When Jesus died, his
Spirit/soul went to Hades while his body was still in the tomb. The day
Jesus died all of humanity was separated from their hellish bondages as well
as sins deadly consequences (Rom. 6:2). The satanic spirit left Jesus’ body
and He died. Jesus had beforehand prophesied in John 12:31, “Now is
the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be
cast out.” Cast out of what, or who? When the sin soaked spirit of Satan
departed from Jesus—sin and death were defeated and Satan’s reign and
dominion in mankind was conquered. Yet, Christ’s death was not enough to
completely restore us as “New Creatures.” There had to be more.
“The incomparable benefit of faith is
that it unites the soul with Christ as a bride is united with her
bridegroom. By this mystery, as the Apostle teaches, Christ and the soul
become one flesh. And if they are one flesh and there is between them a true
marriage--indeed the most perfect of all marriages, since human marriages
are but poor examples of this one true marriage--it follows that everything
they have they hold in common, the good as well as the evil. Accordingly,
the believing soul can boast and glory in whatever Christ has as though it
were its own, and whatever the soul has Christ claims as his own. Let us
compare these and we shall see inestimable benefits. Christ is full of
grace, life, and salvation. The soul is full of sins, death, and damnation.
Now let faith come between them and sins, death, and damnation will be
Christ's, while grace, life, and salvation will be the soul's; for if Christ
is a bridegroom, he must take upon himself the things which are his bride's
and bestow upon her the things that are his. If he gives her his body and
very self, how shall he not give her all that he is? And if he takes the
body of the bride, how shall he take all that is hers?”
